PeterB reviewed De aandacht verloren by Johann Hari
Review of 'De aandacht verloren' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
In Stolen Focus, Johann Hari discusses reasons and possible solutions why people seem to be having a much harder time focusing than they used to in the past.
Hari starts out by sort-of disapproving his entire thesis. Most of the evidence that supports the fact that people have shorter attention spans and can't focus as long as they used to is anecdotal. There's fairly little long term scientific research regarding the issue. One thing is for sure: many more children are now diagnosed with ADHD.
Even if the scientific research is still lacking, the rest of the book gives an interesting and sometimes surprising insight into what factors may be leading to our lack of attention and our inability to solve big problems. It most certainly is cause for concern.
The final chapters of the book focus more on children and what is happening to them. Hari interviews different scientists …
In Stolen Focus, Johann Hari discusses reasons and possible solutions why people seem to be having a much harder time focusing than they used to in the past.
Hari starts out by sort-of disapproving his entire thesis. Most of the evidence that supports the fact that people have shorter attention spans and can't focus as long as they used to is anecdotal. There's fairly little long term scientific research regarding the issue. One thing is for sure: many more children are now diagnosed with ADHD.
Even if the scientific research is still lacking, the rest of the book gives an interesting and sometimes surprising insight into what factors may be leading to our lack of attention and our inability to solve big problems. It most certainly is cause for concern.
The final chapters of the book focus more on children and what is happening to them. Hari interviews different scientists with different opinions on different, sometimes conflicting research. It is clear what his opinion is, but I was glad that he talked about the opposing views.
Overall, this was a very insightful book. No big solutions are provided. It is a very nuanced problem with many causes and possible solutions.
I think the book managed to nicely achieve its goal, which is to make me more aware of everything around us that is impacting our focus.